This invention relates in general to the field of medical devices and apparatus and in particular to a wheelchair apparatus for assisting the wheelchair and occupant thereof, with the help of at least one wheelchair attendant, to ascend or descend a stairway or curb.
Conventional wheelchairs have two large rear wheels rotatably mounted beneath a vertical side frame member of a standard wheelchair and two caster wheels mounted to another rail or fork on the front of the wheelchair assembly. Conventional wheelchairs as presently manufactured do not provide for safe and "bump free" use by an occupant of the chair to ascend or descend stairways. In order for a standard design chair to be used in the transporting of an occupant up or down a stairway, the chair must be tipped backward, with the occupant in it, by a handler or attendant of the chair and then slowly lowered or raised, one step at a time on the stairway. Safe practice generally dictates that a second attendant should grasp the front caster wheels or frame of the chair and walk with the chair as the chair and occupant are raised or lowered on a stairway. Due to the size of the rear wheel, the wheelchair must be slowly lifted or lowered one stair at a time and in a manner that causes the occupant to be jolted or bumped as the wheels pass to the next step. This can cause severe discomfort to older occupants of a chair as well as individuals and persons suffering from injury or other trauma, and can cause damage to the chair as well. Further, using the standard wheelchair assembly to ascend or descend a stairway is time consuming and places the occupant at risk of injury due to the difficulty of a handler to control the chair on the stairway, particularly on a long stairway. Due to the large diameter of the rear wheel the wheelchair occupant is balanced precariously on each step as the chair is raised or lowered on the stairway. Also with the standard wheelchair the handler must bend over the chair at an uncomfortable angle when the chair is tipped backwards on the stairwell. This leads to an uncomfortable experience for the handler as well as an increased risk to the safety of the wheelchair occupant.
Many wheelchair-bound persons, due to the difficulty of ascending or descending stairways and curbs, are prevented from gaining access to buildings and to the upper levels of multi-story buildings. Not only does this affect their mobility, but it also affects their ability to gain employment since many employers do not want to cope with a wheelchair-bound employee who cannot freely move from one floor to another in a place of employment. Also, hospitals, nursing homes and other multi-story patient care facilities must rely on elevators to move wheelchair-bound patients from one floor to another due to the difficulty of negotiating a stairway. Medical transport services which often transport sick, invalid, obese or elderly patients have difficulty in transporting such patients in a standard wheelchair. Extreme difficulties have been encountered in the patients' homes where the wheelchair-bound person must be raised and lowered along a narrow stairwell. In many cases this prevents such a person from utilizing their whole house and forces them to live on only one floor of a multi-story dwelling.
Attempts have been made in the past to provide means for ascending or descending stairs in a wheelchair in a manner that would not place the occupant at such risk of harm or jolt the occupant as the chair is raised or lowered up the stairs. The patent to Locke, U.S. Pat. No. 3,146,841, illustrates one such device. This patent shows a non-conventional chair assembly having a large wheel in the front of the chair and the small caster wheel in the rear. The Locke, '841 patent discloses a device which clearly cannot be assembled to a standard wheelchair, appears to not be removable, is cumbersome to manufacture and not otherwise practical. Further, the Locke device does not provide for the wheelchair to be tipped backwards, as with conventional chairs, prior to ascending or descending a stairway. This makes it very difficult for a handler of the chair to control it as it goes up or down a stairway. Another patent to Locke, U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,331, illustrates the same type of invention with the same disadvantages as previously mentioned.
In the patent to Studer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,178, a wheelchair apparatus is shown which provides an extensive and cumbersome means for ascending or descending stairs. The assembly shown in the Studer patent is obviously expensive to manufacture and would be prohibitive in price for the average user of a wheelchair to have as an accessory to the chair.
The patent to Weyer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,231,290, illustrates another device which is cumbersome and will interfere with the chair when it is not in use. Further, it is not clear whether the standard chair is able to be adapted to receive the Weyer device.
The patent to Hale, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,276,531, illustrates a vehicle for invalids which does not show an apparatus connected to a standard chair. Indeed, the entire apparatus of the Hale patent is extremely complex and obviously very expensive to manufacture and sell.
Runner assemblies have been used in other areas not relevant to wheelchairs for lifting loads up and down stairs. Previously, appliance trucks, often called dollies, have had runners attached thereto with a track and rollers thereon for assisting in lifting the loaded dolly up and down stairs. The runners are designed to span the length of only one stair at a time, generally causing them to "bump" and "jolt" as the dolly is raised or lowered on the stairway.
All of the above embodiments for wheelchairs in assisting movement up or down a set of stairs have numerous disadvantages and problems. Most are cumbersome, heavy, do not connect to a standard wheelchair as presently manufactured in the United States, are expensive to manufacture, and restrict the movement of the chair both when the apparatus is in use and not in use. It is felt that due to these limitations the existence of a device for assisting a wheelchair up and down stairs has not been forthcoming.
The need for such a device is clear. Most hospitals, nursing homes and other multi-story buildings in a fire situation or other hazard by law must shut down the elevators. In a multi-story building during a fire, with the elevators inoperable, residents must use stairways to exit the building. In so doing, particularly for wheelchair-bound invalids, there is a risk of injury, and great delay in removing them from the building in a safe and efficient manner. This delay will also affect the ability of other building occupants to exit the building quickly and safely and may increase the risk of an overall panic where people are needlessly injured or killed. Current fire escape plans for many of these buildings involve placing a wheelchair-bound patient in a blanket and having four people, each carrying a corner of the blanket, remove the patient from the building. This method depends on the availability of four people strong enough to carry such a patient and ignores the possible need for life sustaining equipment to be carried along with the patient. It is felt that the current state of emergency exit plans for most nursing homes and hospitals would expose many of the wheelchair-bound and invalid patients to extreme danger in a fire.
The average person that is wheelchair-bound must, on a daily basis, struggle with buildings, including his or her home, and building entrances which are not constructed for wheelchair use. Many of these structures have stairway entrances as the only way to get in or out of the building and generally, all structures that are multi-story have stairwells. Often these buildings do not have an elevator system and occupants of the buildings have no choice but to use the stairs. In the past, these buildings have been inaccessible to handicapped, wheelchair-bound people. With the standard wheelchair, or with any of the above-mentioned apparatus, great effort is needed to enable such a person to gain entrance or exit from such a building, or any of its upper stories. In some buildings a wheelchair-bound person is discouraged from visiting the upper stories of a building due to the difficulty in getting such a person there. Thus, there is a need in the field for a wheelchair apparatus which is lightweight, portable, and quickly and easily attachable and detachable to a standard wheelchair with a minimum of tools; and which can be easily modified and customized for use in assisting a wheelchair-bound person to ascend or descend a set of stairs in a reasonably safe and efficient manner. Further, there is a need in the field for a wheelchair apparatus to assist a wheelchair-bound individual to ascend or descend a stairway that does not restrict the normal movement of the chair when the device is both in use and not in use and also does not restrict the chair from collapsing to its storage mode. Further, there is a need in the field for a wheelchair apparatus to assist in ascending or descending a stairway which is affordable by most wheelchair-bound persons.
To satisfy these needs, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wheelchair apparatus that is attachable directly to a standard design wheelchair with a minimum of modification to the chair itself. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for a wheelchair to assist in ascending or descending a stairway and which will not interfere with the operation of the chair both when the apparatus is in use and not in use. It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for a wheelchair where said apparatus is removably affixed to the chair such that when the apparatus is not in use it may be removed from the chair and stored if desired. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide an apparatus to be attached to a wheelchair to assist an occupant of the chair in ascending or descending a stairway where said apparatus will not interfere with the collapsing of the chair to its storage position when the chair is not in use. It is another object of the present invention to provide a wheelchair apparatus which will allow a wheelchair to be moved up or down a stairway when said chair has an occupant in it without causing the occupant to be bump or jolted as the chair moves from one step to another. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a lightweight easily manufactured and affordable wheelchair apparatus assembly to fit to a chair of a standard design which will provide a safe and smooth means by which the wheelchair and occupant may be raised or lowered on the stairway.
These objects are satisfied so as to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art through the present invention as described below. Further objects and advantages of the invention will in part become apparent as the following description proceeds. The features of novelty which characterize the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims next to and forming a part of the specification.